During the Victorian era, women were expected to embrace their role as wives and mothers and exist quietly and neatly within their domicile, with few hobbies or interests outside of their domestic duties. Modesty, purity, passivity, and patience were just a few of the traits that characterized an ideal woman in the Victorian era. It is posited that the image of the ideal woman was modeled after Queen Victoria, the most powerful figure in England, who reinforced the importance of marriage, motherhood, and domesticity (Murray). However, many working-class women could not afford to work within their homes, and children of poor and working-class families also had to work. This created a larger gap between women of different classes, as working-class women could not meet the expectations surrounding class and gender performance. 

Works Cited:

Murray, Margaret. “Ideal and Real Female Experience in Sherlock Holmes’ Stories: The Idealized View of the Victorian Woman.” Ideal and Real Female Experience in Sherlock Holmes’ Stories, scalar.lehigh.edu/mame16---anthology/idealized-vision-of-the-victorian-woman. Accessed 21 Oct. 2021.